There’s a new coach in town for the AFC Richmond Lady Greyhounds. Season 4, Episode 2, “Curiouser and Curiouser!,” gives us our first real look at the team Ted has been hired to coach — and quickly establishes that this will be a different challenge for our famed football hero.
The season adds another variable to the Ted Lasso formula with the disenfranchisement of women’s sports, and Ted gets his first taste of that in this episode.
He quickly discovers that the team has been treated as second-class citizens at Richmond. They change in the youth academy locker room, receive fewer resources and, perhaps most frustratingly, no women were considered for the head-coaching position. That last point particularly infuriates assistant coach Alice, who submits her resignation to Rebecca Welton.
Alice serves as the perfect foil to Ted’s relentless optimism. While Ted approaches the team with his trademark positivity, Alice is abrasive. But when starting striker Josie Gordon suffers a knee injury during practice, Alice immediately drops the tough exterior to care for her player.
Ted responds to this inequality by giving the women’s team a proper locker room, with Keeley Jones transforming the visitors’ locker room into a new home for the Lady Greyhounds. He also convinces Alice to stay as his assistant coach.
The episode’s biggest strength is how it begins to challenge Ted’s coaching philosophy. Ted has spent three seasons proving that optimism and empathy can transform a team, but the Lady Greyhounds face problems that positivity alone cannot solve.
That makes Alice an especially interesting addition. She’s knowledgeable about what the team needs, but her abrasiveness has dissuaded Rebecca Welton from investing into her ideas. If Ted can learn to listen to Alice instead of imposing his positivity onto her, their relationship could become one of Season 4’s most compelling dynamics.
The episode is still heavy on exposition, and the locker-room makeover feels resolved a little too quickly. But “Curiouser and Curiouser!” successfully establishes that Ted Lasso season 4 is going to be a new challenge for Ted and his team. The show is beginning to test if Ted’s strategies can translate with this new format.
Rating: 7/10